Activists demand action during Montreal MMIWG march
Hundreds call on governments to make communities safer for Indigenous women and girls
Sarah Carrière leads the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls protest march on Saint-Catherine Street in Montreal on Feb. 14. Originally from Kinngait, Carrière is calling for governments to take action to make communities safer for Indigenous women and girls. (Photo by Cedric Gallant, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter)
Chants resonated along Montreal’s Saint-Catherine Street on Valentine’s Day as hundreds of people converged to march for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
“When I say Nuna, say back, ‘Nuna Back!” the crowd shouted.
For 33 years, Feb. 14 has been dedicated to calling governments to action to provide safety for Indigenous women and girls in their communities.
Kinngait-born Sarah Carrière led the nighttime march, screaming the chants until her vocal chords gave out. Carrière has been an active member in Montreal’s Indigenous community ever since she moved there from her hometown seven years ago.
“It is super important that everyone keeps showing up,” she said in a speech at the end of the march.
“We need all the love and support because we are constantly grieving. Constantly in a state of grief, it is exhausting.”
Two Inuit names were prevalent at the march: Linda “Charlie” Uqaituk Kirshner and Alasie Tukkiapik.

People light candles to commemorate Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada during the march. (Photo by Cedric Gallant)
Kirshner is a 15-year-old who has been missing since Aug. 17, 2023. She was last seen near Sir Wilfrid Laurier Park in the Plateau Mont-Royal neighbourhood of Montreal.
Tukkiapik, 41, was from Kangiqsujuaq. She was missing for six months in 2023, until her body was found in a Montreal apartment last year.
Laura Aguiar, a co-ordinator with Iskweu Project, read a statement from Tukkiapik’s family.
“Alasie Tukkiapik was a mother, a sister, aunt and daughter,” Aguiar said. “Her joy and warmth were palpable to all those who knew her. Her life ended tragically and in a dehumanizing way.”
The statement alleges Tukkiapik’s family attempted to file a report with police for more than two weeks, yet were dismissed.
Even though they had not heard from Tukkiapik for an extended period of time, the family was told she was not in imminent danger, the statement read.
It took Tukkiapik’s sister, who lived near Edmonton, to file a report with police in Alberta, who then transferred the file to Montreal police, according to the family.
“Even though Alasie is dead, it is still my responsibility as her mother to take care of her, and this is why I need to know what happened to her,” Aguiar read from the statement.

A group of Indigenous women stand in Cabot Square in Montreal at the beginning of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls march, which is organized every year in the city on Valentine’s Day. (Photo by Cedric Gallant)
Carrière talked of Nunavut in an interview next to the stage.
She said she wants to return to her home community, but fears returning means that violence will follow her there.
“Our communities are isolated, much smaller, and everything is a lot more in your face,” she said.
“We see the violence happening in our communities, and it’s almost like it has been normalized.”
Carrière called for governments to stop doing research and instead support action. She also called for investment into the preservation of Inuktut languages and other Inuit-led initiatives.
“Stop spending money on assessment,” she said. “Give us the money to deliver our own programming that we know works. But also give us the resources, the extra support that we need.”
“Give us the money to deliver our own programming that we know works.”
I don’t believe you have a clue what to do.
Sarah has been involved in a bunch of different outreach and program delivery work in the city for years now, and it’s not chintzy small stuff by any means.
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In my experience with Sarah as well as our municipal/provincial/federal government officials tasked with oversight and supporting the sort of services in question, I would definitely trust Sarah to plan and deliver programming more efficiently instead of them.
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Like that other commenter said, who are you to judge and be so dismissively under the veil of anonymity… I doubt you even know who Sarah was until reading this article, and have no clue about how well she has been doing the difficult work she has taken on for years.
BLUE MOON, Be brave to show your name. And what have you done to support important events such as this?? Have you volunteered your time in Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls? My fellow Inuit and non-Inuit, if you’ll give comments such as Blue Moon, be brave to show your name or Shut The Hell UP.
just this morning I was out on the streets of my community yelling “Nuna back!!!”
I did that for a full hour…
You are welcome…
Why don’t you refute their comment instead of impotently suggesting they shut up?
I live in a remote nunavik community. Web have a sister, daughter, mother and auntie who has been missing for many years. We know as a community she was murdered. Her supposedly friend had dumped her body in the Hudson Bay and not a day goes by that I say a Prayer for her soul to find Peace. Yes, Violence is Normalized in the North. It happens every single day of the year. This is why I have been asking the Inuit Organizations to do more in funding programs to teach our young boys, teenage boys and men not to be so violent towards your immediate family members and the community as a whole. This violence and domestic violence will not stop until the Inuit understands (some not all) that drinking any sort of alcoholic beverage is not safe for ones self or the community. We as Inuit believe that we can handle consuming any alcoholic beverage. We believe we can have a good time socializing with friends and family members. But in Reality, we are born alcoholics (some not all) and we do not know how to consume small amounts of alcohol. We know that if we had a 26 ounce of VODKA, we must drink this bottle of VODKA till the bottle is completely empty. It is time for the young men and women to understand that we as a people that was introduced to alcohol some 600 years ago, our biological bodies cannot tolerate this alcoholic beverage. It kills us in more ways then alcohol poisoning. Murder, Suicide, Vehicle accidents, freezing to death, getting lost, going hunting either by ATV HONDA or canoe and ending up losing our lives. The harm that we cause our children and grandchildren is another story where it is taboo to talk about. Our children and grandchildren will see this type of normalized behavior in the Inuit culture and as they grow into adult hood, they too will believe its normal to use violence to live.
Well said “Broken Hearted”, if only Inuit as a whole would read and understand what you are saying and take it seriously, then change will come about.
Thank you ‘Broken Hearted’; your comment is moving and meaningful